Learning and Cognition Critique

Learning and Cognition Theories

Introduction

The wide array of educational field evolved in the history of mankind has helped them to live a contended and better life. In the field of human psychology there were made remarkable efforts to address the mental issues of people going through different stages of life. In past, there exists misperception that a person needs to consult the psychologist only in case of mental illness or mental disorder. In contrast, over the number of years, psychologists have developed theories which are meant to eliminate the hidden or unsaid difficulties of life. Learning and cognitive theories were developed in this regard, providing different perspective to enhance knowledge and create appropriate association.

Basic principles of Learning Theories

Over the past century, educational psychologists and researchers have presented various theories to enhance the understanding as how individual acquire knowledge, interpret it, and use the learned skills and knowledge. There are many ways through which psychologist have developed and organize the extensive body of literature (Leahy, 2006). There are three main categories to group learning theories written ass under

• Behaviorist learning theories

• Cognitive-information processing learning theories

• Cognitive-constructivist learning theories

Learning theories are divided into two main approaches that is teacher centered approach and students learning approach. The teacher centered approach refers to objectivism, Instructivsm, and Behaviorism. On the other hand, student centered approach represent Cognitive. Humanism, Constructivism, Connectives approach to learning. There is a thin line difference in both the approaches as, teacher centered approach believes in transferring of knowledge from instructor to students. Students centered approach viewed learning as p personal act who are actively engaged in giving meaning to the objective reality (Leahy, 2006).

The basic principle of learning and cognition theory underlies the idea that our process and behavior are learned. Humans from their early childhood are engaged in maximizing the pleasure and avoid punishment. The theory also proposes that humans are bound with certain, instinctual responses. According to these theories humans learn through Association refers to as Classical conditioning, consequences known as operational and instrumental conditioning and observation (Leahy, 2006).

Piaget's Approach of Cognitive Learning

Jean Piaget was born in 1896 in Geneva Switzerland, he wrote a research paper which was established in start of his career. After graduating from university of Zurich he became interested in psychoanalytic field and studied children's intellectual development from infancy. His theory initiated when he started observing his own children and came with concerning with children learning (Ojose, 2008).

Sensorimotor

He proposed the theory comprised of four stages of intellectual learning. In the four stages of intellectual development sensorimotor is the first stage which starts from birth to age 2 where child develops his reflexes, habits and experiences. This age refers to little scientists' age where a child is actively engaged in trial and error experiments (Ojose, 2008).

Pre-operational Stage

In this child learns through imitating and playing with other children, and develops language skills and enhance imagination. They create reasoning on the basis of intuition instead of logics (Ojose, 2008).

Concrete

In this stage a child ...